Safe Streets Act
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The Safe Streets Act, 1999 is a law in the province of Ontario, Canada, not to be confused with the US Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. In 2004 the province of British Columbia passed its own version of the Safe Streets Act (SSA), substantially a word-for-word copy of the Ontario version. The SSA prohibits aggressive solicitation of persons in certain public places and the disposal of dangerous things in certain public places. It also amends the Highway Traffic Act to regulate certain activities on roadways. The SSA was enacted by the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris and received royal assent on December 14, 1999.
The act was created in response to what was seen as the growing problem of squeegee kids on the streets. By 1999, it was very common to see squeegee kids on some of the busiest intersections where they would solicit motorists for spare change.
The Ontario SSA is currently before the Ontario Court of Appeal on a constitutional challenge after the Ontario Superior Court upheld its validity in 2005 in R. v. Banks. Under the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982 only the federal government has jurisdiction to enact criminal law, and it is felt by many that the SSA is creating a criminal act already convered in the Canadian Criminal Code. (See Canadian federalism for more information on the distribution of powers between the federal government and the provinces.)
[edit] Criticism
This act has been criticized by many anti-poverty groups for being too strict and too vague on what it defines as aggressive panhandling. The bill limits aggressive panhandling but does not distinctly say what aggressive panhandling is. The bill states that "aggressive manner" means "a manner that is likely to cause a reasonable person to be concerned for his or her safety or security." This could mean almost anything as different people have different standards for when their own safety has been compromised.
Furthermore, the act has been criticized for being poorly enforced. Police officers in Ottawa have shown to be ignorant of the precepts of the act itself even though they mention it by name. For example, even if a panhandler is not violating any of the examples given for aggressive panhandling, a police officer may still give the panhandler a ticket.[citation needed] One of the ways panhandlers get around this is by carrying a copy of the Safe Streets Act.
The Safe Streets Act was protested by a group of one hundred homeless in May 2006 in Ottawa who mostly identified themselves as anarchists. The march and protest was organized by the Panhandlers Union of Ottawa, a local branch of the Ottawa-Outaouais Industrial Workers of the World. Two prominent Wobblies are Jane Scharf and Andrew Nellis who have been a vocal opponent of the Safe Streets Act in Ottawa.
